Howell Mill Food Park

Yesterday was the official opening of the brand new , located behind Willy’s on Howell Mill (duh). The organizers of the food park basically bought a parking lot and have turned it into a weekly food truck gathering space. Food trucks can’t roam the streets in Atlanta, so hey, great idea for capitalizing on our city’s bureaucratic shortcomings.

When I learned where this space was located, my first question was – where do you park? What you see above is about half the official parking for the venue. There is a street behind the lot, which connects Collier to Howell Mill, but my attempt to simply drive down the street was futile. It was completely jammed. Later on in the evening people ended up parking on this street, but at the time I wasn’t aware that was legit, so I reversed out of there and ended up parking across the street on a neighborhood road next to a church. If you want some parking ideas for next week, check out the HMFP facebook page, there are people offering suggestions. They also note where people were being towed.

Once parked I darted across traffic (in a cross-walk but the drivers didn’t notice) and through the Willy’s parking lot (I’m sure they love this recent development) and back into the park where seven or eight trucks were stationed and a boat load of people had already convened within fifteen minutes of opening. Great sign for the trucks!

I only had about thirty minutes to kill before I had to a dinner reservation, so I snapped a few pics and decided to sample one dish.

My initial choice was Tex’s Tacos, but after seeing their line I decided to go with something else.

I decided some dumplings from the would be nice. I sat in the short-ish line while the one guy taking orders explained what a Thai tea was to a few people who apparently weren’t alive in the 90’s, then ordered my pork dumplings and handed over four sweaty dollars. My recent post-gym shower, combined with the ninety degree heat, and I was having a major .

They told me it would be a few minutes and they’d call my name, so I stood nearby so I could hear my name called, which was unfortunate because their truck wasn’t in the shade.

I stood there for fifteen minutes, counting the individual drops of sweat dripping down my back. They were handing out small $5 banh mi left and right, but not many dumpling orders, and it was only after the third time that they called the name “Julie” did I realize they screwed up writing my name down, even though the guy said my (correct) name back to me when I gave it to him.

I admit I generally have little patience anyways, but combined with the heat I became more than a little annoyed at this situation. I got in line, waited once again, then inquired about my order, where there was that brief moment where he realized what he had done with the name, but instead of saying so, he decided to go with, “We’ve been calling for you”.

They at first tried to give me some old dumplings that had been sitting there, then offered to make some new ones, but I told them to forget it. It had became very crowded and I’d already been hit with a stroller once and had a dog sniff up my sweaty ass, and I only had a few minutes left before I would be late for dinner, so I got the hell out of there.

As I walked toward my car, I decided to stop in Willy’s, the only location that has a (somewhat) full bar. I had a Margarita made with lime juice, Cointreau, and tequila. I sat comfortably in their glorious AC, arms rest on the cool concrete of the bar, guzzled my $6.25 margarita, and decided that at that moment, it was the best deal in the area.

Tagged as: atlanta dining, dumplings, food truck, howell mill, margarita, willy's